260 The Irish Naturalist. 



the results of earth movements. Mr. Turlough O'Brien showed a 

 hornet's nest taken in Middlesex. Mr. R. Welch was to the fore with a 

 good series of his well-known photographs illustrating Irish geology 

 and ethnography. One of the principal exhibits consisted of a large 

 table on which, amid living ferns and grasses, a large collection of fresh 

 Fungi were naturally arranged as if growing on a green sward of mosses, 

 each species bearing its scientific name. There were agarics of all 

 shapes and sizes; boleti, puftballs of various kinds, hydnums and 

 polypori. The whole exhibited a wonderful variety of form, and almost 

 every shade of colour — greens, purples, scarlets, browns, yellows, and 

 whites, and showed in a striking degree the variety and beauty of this 

 class of plants. This series was collected chiefly at Dundrum and 

 Howth by Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Tatlow, Miss C. Gardiner, and Mr. Praeger, 

 and, considering the lateness of the season and the inclemency of the 

 weather, it formed a very striking display of local fungi. 



At 9.15 the President again took the chair, and called for nominations 

 of new members. The Secretary read the list of nominations sent in, 

 and the President announced that these would be balloted for at next 

 meeting. After a further display of lantern-slides, under the manage- 

 ment of Mr. Greenwood Pirn, F.L.S., the exhibits once more claimed 

 attention, and the members did not disperse until a late hour. 



November 13th. — The Vice-President (Prof. Coee) in the chair. Mr. 

 J. N. Haebert gave an account of the insects taken on the Club's three- 

 day excursion to Fermoy and Lismore in July last, and exhibited the 

 specimens. This paper will shortly appear in extenso in our pages. Prot. 

 Haddon, Mr. Duerden, and the Chairman complimented the reader on the 

 industry displayed by his list of captures. 



Mr. R. Leoyd Praeger gave a lecture on the varieties of British Ferns. 

 He said that this group of plants exhibited an extraordinary power of 

 variation, unequalled in any other branch of the vegetable kingdom. 

 With the aid of numerous lantern slides and some hundreds of dried 

 fronds, he demonstrated how in general the most extreme forms w T ere 

 developed by a process of regular evolution from the type, and how, in 

 various species differing widely from each other in appearance, the types 

 of variation run in different parallel lines. He finished- with some 

 reference to crossed varieties, and to the several interesting new modes of 

 reproduction that have recently been discovered in certain varieties of 

 British ferns. 



Prof. Haddon, Mr. Duerden, and the Chairman criticised the paper, 

 after which Mr. Praeger replied. 



The following new members were elected : — Mrs. W. Haughton Baskin, 

 Mrs. Bradford, Miss Brown, N. M. Falkiner, M.B., Miss E. J. Haughton, 

 Miss K. M. N. Maguire, M.D., Mrs. Minchin. 



Royae Irish Academy. 



November 12TH.— Dr. R. F. Scharff read his report on the origin of 

 the Land and Freshwater Fauna of Ireland. His conclusions, based 

 chiefly on the geographical distribution of Mammals, were as follows : — 

 That the entire fauna (except those species which originated in the 

 country) migrated to Ireland from Great Britain in Pliocene times, and 

 that at that time the central portion of the Irish Sea was a freshwater 

 lake. The southern land connection between Wales and the south of 

 Ireland broke down at the beginning of the Pleistoceme system, whilst 

 the northern one with Scotland persisted for some time after. The Irish 

 Sea was thus converted into a marine estuary, and the freshwater fauna 

 to a large extent driven to smaller lakes to the east and west of it. A 

 fuller paper dealing with this highly interesting subject is promised for 

 an early date. 



